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Cryptocurrencies: Real Money or a Fad?

Published on February 13, 2018

2017 is the year of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin jumped from a few thousand dollars’ worth and broke records by crossing the $20,000 mark. Ethereum’s Ether is higher than ever. New currencies are popping up every day and people are buying them in a frenzy.

So, are these codes of programming real money or a fad that will die in time? Let’s review:

SAVING MONEY

Have you ever sent money to someone through banking channels? Different banks have different protocols, but all have one thing in common: They charge you for it. Yes, you might say that your bank gives you a few fee transactions a month, but it puts other restrictions where you are forced to pay for those particular services.

With digital currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, you still have to pay to transfer money over to someone, but the transaction “charges” you give to miners are much lower than what traditional banks offer you.

SAVING TIME

Sending cryptocurrency to someone living in any part of the world is as easy as writing an email. All you have to do is to ask for the receiver’s address, log in your wallet and send the desired amount. You can then go around doing whatever you do in your daily life and the money will be transferred.

UNIVERSAL CURRENCY

OK, so the title is misleading a bit. There are tons of cryptocurrency out there, so you and the receiver may not have the same currency wallet. If the receiver is flexible (and you have the convincing power), he or she can set up an electronic wallet for your currency in no time.

The most widely accepted currency is Bitcoin and if you have it, you will not face any problem of different currency acceptance.

INVESTMENT

With financial crises everywhere and the inflation rate rising rapidly, you will one day find that all those dollars you saved don’t have much buying power in a decade or so. The wise thing is to invest them in something that will not depreciate over time. Enter Cryptocurrencies! Mostly because of the way these currencies are programmed, they will be very limited in circulation, unlike paper based currency where you can just print off more.

A simple case of supply and demand will always ensure that cryptocurrencies will have an ever increasing value.

So, there you have it: Cryptocurrencies are not a fad in my opinion. All you have to do is know which one to buy.